Records & Publications Store
Compilations of Vital Records, Cemetery Records & Church Records
HCGS Publications for Sale
The Howard County Genealogy Society publishes and sells an assortment of publications relevant to genealogical research in and about Howard County. Over the years, dedicated members of the Howard County Genealogical Society have documented many of the genealogical resources found in the county. This includes cemetery, marriage, and bible records (thus, the Records Store). These documents have been printed in limited quantities and are available for purchase. These may be purchased by visiting the store.
Introduction to our Cemetery Records
The first organized recording of Howard County tombstone inscriptions was done in 1958-60, when the Colonel Thomas Dorsey Chapter of the DAR inventoried twenty-one burial sites and published the information in Tombstone Inscriptions from a Few Cemeteries in Howard County, Maryland. The Howard County Genealogical Society, founded in 1976, has continued this project, publishing eight volumes of cemetery records between 1979 and 1993. In 1994, in compliance with County Council Bill 13-1993, the Department of Planning and Zoning in cooperation with the Cemetery Preservation Advisory Board issued the Howard County Cemeteries and Gravesites Inventory (subsequently updated in late 1995 and amended in 1998). That list of all known burial sites in the county was utilized in the ninth and final volume of tombstone inscriptions published in 2001.An index to the names of the interments in all nine volumes plus the DAR book was compiled and published in 2001, and contains about 16,000 names. An index to the cemeteries themselves was compiled in 2010, and correlates the cemetery names, addresses, county inventory numbers, and HCGS cemetery volumes.
A number of cemeteries listed in the county inventory are not included in our books for one of the following reasons: (1) Howard County has undergone very rapid development since 1960, and some known burial sites have been destroyed during road and building construction (new laws safeguard against this practice today); (2) some sites have no remaining stones; (3) some of the historic black cemeteries of HC were being recorded by Beulah Buckner for a book she planned to publish, and we did not duplicate her efforts; (4) in a very few cases, we were not granted permission to enter private property to record the inscriptions. A decision was made in the early years of the project to record only pre-1920 inscriptions, since our primary purpose was to preserve the information from old stones before it was lost to weather, vandalism and development. For that reason, we have not included the large, relatively recent, commercial cemeteries in the county - Crest Lawn Memorial Gardens, Meadowridge Memorial Park and Columbia Memorial Park. (The entry for Meadowridge found in Volume VI includes only the inscriptions from stones moved there from an old burial plot.) All cemeteries in Volume IX were completely recorded regardless of date.
When using the cemetery locations given in our earlier volumes, the researcher should keep in mind the rapid change in Howard County from rural to suburban; old roads have been relocated and new ones built, family farms are now housing or commercial developments. An example is the location given for the "Dorsey, Owings, Waters Gravestones" in Volume I, described as "in middle of a field with tall grass," just prior to the intersection of Route 175 with Snowden River Parkway. It is now at the edge of the parking lot of the Lone Star Steakhouse on Stanford Blvd. in Columbia!
The tombstone inscriptions in each book are ordered by election district. When a small number of stones is listed, the name of the cemetery is generally the name which appears on the majority of the stones. If the cemetery, no matter what size, is known by a specific name, then that title is used. Footstones were recorded only if no corresponding headstone was found. In some cases a small epitaph is included, especially if it had genealogical or biographical information. These publications may be purchased by visiting the store .
1. A Perpetual Calendar, 1583-2349
[Item # 91-0] A Perpetual Calendar, 1583-2349.
You look up the year of interest in the index, and are directed to one of 14 one-page calendars that display the 12 months for that year.The calendar is invaluable for doing detective work on dates in family letters and clippings. Prepared by the late HCGS member Richard C. Randt and published by HCGS in 1991.
2. Indexes to the Welling Bibles
[Item # 91-1] Indexes to the Welling Bibles. This is a surname index for a special collection held by the Howard County Historical Society library. The collection itself consists of photocopies of Howard County material (as well as some items relating to Carroll County and Anne Arundel County) contained in three Welling family Bibles that had been used as scrap books. These materials include clippings, obituaries, certificates, courthouse records, photographs, correspondence and genealogical charts of this prominent Howard county family. The dates of items extend from 1613 to 1981. The index volume allows the researcher to determine whether a name of interest is included, and where in the files at the HCHS to access it. There are well over 300 surnames, including Barrow, Bird, Brayshaw, Cauthorn, Dorsey, Forsyth(e), Gaither, Gist, Greenwood, Inglehart, Morris, Polk, Sykes, Warfield, Welling and Winchester. This book was originally published by HCGS in 1991 and was reprinted in 1997 as HCGS Special Publication 91-1.
3. Selected Genealogical Resources in the Howard County Historical Society Library
[Item # 97-1] The book’s 21 articles are: Marriage Licenses (1858-1939); Voters Records (1865-1940); Deeds and Mortgages (1850-1960); Slack Funeral Home Records (1930-1950); World War Military Records; Oella Cemetery Company Records (1891-1920); Pensioner Lists of 1883; Revolutionary War Muster Rolls; B&O Magazine (1946-1961); The Frances Day Collection (1900-1990); School Yearbooks (1839-1955); The Trinity of Howard County Maps (1860-1968); Social Registers (1892-1981); Farm Credit Records; (1930-1950); Indentures, Bills of Sale and Manumissions (1815-1865); Early Courthouse Records ; (1842-1890); Maryland’s Earliest Court Proceedings (1658-1676); Early Courthouse Criminal Records (1839-1870); Sun Almanacs (1884-1915); 4-H and Other Extension Service Records (1917-1993); The Alberton/Daniels Band (1879-1896). (1991) Authored by HCGS member Doris W. Edwards and HCHS library director Mary K. Mannix and published by HCGS in 1997 is a compilation of 21 articles that appeared in THE FAMILY TREE from April 1994 to December 1996 under the title "Selects From the HCHS Library". HCGS Special Publication 97-1.
4. Patriots and Pioneers of Howard County, Maryland: The Courthouse and The Jail
[Item # 98-1 Patriots Patriots and Pioneers of Howard County, Maryland: The Courthouse and The Jail is an account of the people involved in the construction and early days of the Howard County courthouse and the jail in Ellicott City in the time from 1840 to 1857. This book is the first publication from a manuscript written by HCGS member Joseph H. Nichols intended to document the common people who were responsible for the growth of the county during its formative years. The main source used by Mr. Nichols was the original 506-page ledger consisting of bound handwritten pages on which the activities of the early County Commissioners were recorded. The new book also contains a turn-of-the-century picture of the courthouse, pictures of the jail, and a portion of an 1860 map of Ellicott City showing various properties mentioned in the book. There is an index containing all the surnames in the book, including Alexander, Anderson, Batson, Bowie, Bradenbaugh, Bradford, Brown, Burgess, Thomas, Butler, Campbell, Carr, Carrick, Clark, Cole, Crawford, Davis, Day, Disney, Donaldson, Dorsey, Duvall, Ellicott, Elliott, Emmart, Fell, Fort, Gaither, Gibbons, Gosnell, Green, Griffith, Hammond, Harding, Harris, Haslup, Hayden, Hearn, Hipsley, Hobbs, Hollifield, Holland, Hopkins, Hughes, Hunt, Iglehart, Isaac, Isaacs, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Legon, Linthicum, Lycum, Lyons, MacCubbin, Maclin, McClary, McCrea, McKenzie, Israel, McLaughlin, Mills, Moore, Morris, Norwood, Orem, Owings, Patridge, Peepe, Piper, Powell, Pue, Radcliff, Rivers, Sallen, Scaggs, Shipley, Simmons, Smith, Snowden, Sprigg, Stewart, Talbott, Timanus, Tyson, Van Brocklyn, Warfield, Welsh, Wilson, Worthington.and Pioneers of Howard County, Maryland.
5. Index to Howard County Maryland Cemeteries
pages. This book identifies 206 cemeteries or gravesites in Howard County. Of these, 193 have Howard County Inventory ID Numbers, assigned by the county to protect the gravesites. The book consists of a set of five tables that list the cemeteries in various orders -- by name, by town, by street address, by County ID number, and by HCGS reference number. Columns in the five tables of the book include: Cemetery Name, Street Number, Street Name, Town, Zip Code, Howard County Cemetery Inventory ID Number, Howard County Tax Map Location, Historic Black Cemetery, Notes, and HCGS Reference Numbers. The HCGS Reference Numbers direct you to the volume of cemetery records in which the tombstone inscription are transcribed.
6. Naturalization Records from the Court Minutes of Howard District
[Item # 11-1] Naturalization Records from the Court Minutes of Howard District of Anne Arundel County and the Circuit Court of Howard County 1840-1906, (2011).
